unclenedsfishfactory.com

Entire tropical Atlantic severely degraded,
about 70% of reefs gone from live coral cover 50-80% down to 2-15% now.
Big decline in 1980's and through successive severe bleaching events, disease.
Disease wiped staghorn and elkhorn corals in 1980's,
endemic lettuce coral (Agaricia tenuifolia) took over much of space and reefs healed,
then super bad bleaching in Belize in 1998 wiped them,
and again in 2005 for double whammy.
Now bleaching, disease, and displaced coral predators wiping the big, old massive corals.
Whole place badly overfished increasing algae problems.

Best remaining Belize, Bonaire, southern Cuba, and none of those particularly spectacular.
Some signs of recovery here and there.

Belize one of four nodes in my project
with Conservation International,
others are Brazil, Panama/Galapagos, and Fiji.

Les

Les Kaufman
Professor of Biology
Boston University Marine Program
and
Senior PI
Marine Management Area Science
Conservation International